The Atlantis Blog

Monday, January 7, 2013

My campaign setting, Phoenicia, City of Psionics; is taking shape. I've had some great ideas to get over the art problem, but not all of it is solved, so I'm plugging away to get it written.

I've written chapter 3: Races of Phoenicia in a rough draft. The following races are available:

Core Pathfinder Races

These are the major races and the races everyone is used to.

I dropped the desert elves and added two more sub races of elves -- the Pelagasiri Elves which are regarded as savage and bloodthirsty. The Pelagasiri are rumored to eat beasts of prey (Leopards, lions, wolves, eagles, etc.) They also wear animal skins, wear a modicum of clothing (many wear loin cloths), shave their heads, and live like savages. They also tend to be very muscular.

The other elven subrace are the Olvinian Elves -- which are psionic elves. All elves are seeking Arvandor, or the elven Promised Land. There are five groups of elves (six, if you include drow); mentioned in the C.S. They all approach Arvandor from their own point of view. The Arcadian Elves and the Myth'lari elves seek to make the Promised Land work by using magic. The Olvinian Elves seek Arvandor through psionic discipline, while the Pelagasiri want to return to the Land and living primitively (the Pelagasiri are like the hippies). The Massalian Elves are too busy trying to avenge themselves of losing their homeland and loved ones in Arcadia to a Pelagasiri invasion.

Then there is the Dark Elves, which aren't seeking Arvandor at all. But instead wallowing their own evil ways and plotting to conquer the surface.

Other races include the Lemurians -- which are the Kalashtar of Eberron in spirit. And the Proteans, which are the Changelings of Eberron in spirit.

Next are the Nagaji. I basically combined the Nagaji from the Dragon Empires Gazetteer with the Ophidians from Psionics Unleashed and called them: "The Nagaji." Why? Both races are basically the same in concept. By combining them both under one race, you get an interesting blend of the two. The Nagaji traits are used from the ARG to describe the Nagaji in Phoenicia. However, an optional trait is listed so players can play a psionically active Nagaji.

Other races included are the Maenads and the Elans. NPC races include:

Aasimars, Dark Elves (or drow), orcs, and tieflings. There are no minotaurs or Centaurs in this setting for PCs.

I am currently writing a chapter on Religion in Phoenicia. I chose to approach the world as if a God like Jesus or Michael the Archangel were creating it.

As much as people feel about religion today, I feel that Religion used to foster Spirituality in Man, and as religion continues to go along it's mission diverges from one of being a good tool to man to being Man's master. Despite that, I use real world religions as a point of inspiration and even bring them into the world. Now this is against grain of advice, but let me tell you.

A religion should teach you how to gain Spirituality: a personal relationship with God. However, as religion continues, it priests turn from those who love to those who master. This happened in India, when the Brahmins took over the Hindu religion and used the Apartheid Caste System to their advantage (In India, those who pray are more important than those who war).

Writing the Religions of Many Gods and of None was easy. Writing the Religions of One God, since there are only 2 of them; is tough.

Approaching the Problem of Illustration
While writing the Religion chapter, I got off track and followed an idea on illustration. I thought I'd do a marketplace chapter and on how things in Phoenicia are different than in traditional Pathfinder as the monetary system goes.

I also thought I could illustrate Adventurer fashion. Here's an example of where I'm going with this:

Here the DAZ Freak (based on Michael 3) is wearing a traditional Greek military uniform and is billed as Hercules. I managed to get a copy of the Freak 3 uniform and will be doing an illustration in simile the one on the right.

Looking at that, I could do illustrations of Adventurer Fashion. Ranging from the Freak in a Breastplate armor at the right, to persian harem costumes, to bellydancer costumes to Barbarian costumes straight out of Conan the Barbarian and Kull the Conquerer.

I suddenly realized that I don't have everything I need to make what I want come to pass. Fortunately, Orientalist paintings can come to the rescue.

Jean-Léon Gérôme [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

For one example. Another --

Edwin Lord Weeks [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

That is, I'm not fully incapable of doing some orientalist work myself. I can get DM's Zahir's Palace as a backdrop. There is still a lot of options available, but Indian paintings are going to be tough, naturally. Also naturally tough is an illustration of the city's waterfall. That's another I have to commission. :)

STATE OF EMPLOYMENT
I currently work for Steven D. Russell's Rite Publishing in laying out Pathways Magazine. Pathways #22 recently came out and I'm still making mistakes as I go along. I recently laid out the monthly magazines for the past quarter using InDesign, and this month's magazine is also laid out.

I'm working as an intern for Layout design with Rite Publishing, and I still deserve the internship. Lately, in a bold move, they are having me layout the book for Faces of the Tarnished Souk. The book is 220 pages long, and it's taking some time to layout. It's going to be a great book to layout since I will actually be paid to do it.

For other things for publication from my own brain, I have to continue my association with Misfit Publishing to publish my work. They can put it up on the three stores, and it can get some attention. Self Publishing can be a fiasco, especially when you are working hard at school. However, I wanted to do this for a long time and you can't get away with using Word as your layout program. :)

The latest installment of Rite Publishing's Free E-zine Pathways is 33 pages long, 1 page front cover, 1 page SRD, 10 pages of advertisement, leaving us with 21 pages of content that start off to a great beginning indeed - taking the new streamlined and much crisper layout from the last issue and taking it to the logical conclusion, Pathways now sports a ToC AND bookmarks! Oh, and have I mentioned that this issue is only about 3.2 mb? Yeah, it even takes up less space on your HD!

Now, David Paul's editorial is by now an institution in Pathways and this time, we get to know about Zane, a character that was not (yet) to be played. After this, we are introduced to Steven D. "Grandmaster of Monstertemplates" Russell's template of the month and get one that should have Steampunk-aficionados and fans of the Iron Kingdoms in particular cheer his name - the Ion Lich, powered by souls in his resplendent, unholy glory has been remained for Pathfinder! Nice indeed!

Raging Swan Press' Mastermind Creighton Broadhurst has also something for you with an order of cavaliers called "Order of the Scourge" that is all about punishing those sinners. As a nice bonus, w get a rank-and-file soldier of the order including mount as well as a nice CR 4 multiclassed cavalier/inquisitor-enforcer of th order.

"Spellcasting with a Price" is the article by Mike Welham and honestly, it is perhaps my favorite Pathways-article so far! Whether it be casting spells beyond one's capability, forbidden magic from dusty tomes, cursed and diseased spells that extol a price on the caster, spells that literally burn through your fortune or demand their power to be compensated by paying their price in flesh, to withering, enervating spells, spells that do exactly the opposite of what they ought to do and the good ol' sanity-shatterer - this article has them all and provides easy to implement guidelines to make magic just a tad bit more exciting and risky. This article, I can't stress it enough, is GOLD and I hope that Mr. Welham will develop a whole supplement with expanded versions of these types of magic. They're that cool.

John Bennett has new cursed items for us, to be precise two lovingly crafted ones - a puzzle-box that is not about going Hellraiser and a neat bone-piercing that may prove to be any caster's undoing. Both items come with detailed histories and hooks and can be considered true classy additions to your game.

This issue's interview is with Sean O'Connor, notably 4WFG's lead designer of PFRPG-compatible content and worth the read - as is, though I may be biased, the section on reviews, where the best 3pp-products are reviewed by yours truly, my fellow reviewer and all out great guy Joshua "KTFish7" Gullion and the new layout has also improved here, massively. Nice, though you may want to read the text of the Shadowsfall Player's Guide - its verdict is 5 stars, not 3 as mentioned in the beginning.

Conclusion:I already gushed on about how superior the new layout is and Elton Robb, the layout-artist should really be proud - Pathways now looks completely, professional, sports a small mb-size and as all the nice things like bookmarks in addition being free! While this is one of the shorter issues Pathways, it is also, hands down one of the best, if not the best so far - Each and every contribution in this issue is made of win and it sports one of my favorite article in any RPG-magazine. Two thumbs up, 5 stars + seal of approval - if you download an issue, get this one!

Wednesday, November 14, 2012

Imagine for a moment, a fantasy world suffering catastrophe that sends most of the world's surviving population back to the Stone Age.

Living in the stone age, the society is forced to rebuild. It's a society where shiny gem stones are traded, and people must return to a hunter gatherer society. Although, insular as they are, a minority of societies rediscover malachite copper and tin, forming bronze age societies. In the interaction of these societies, you get a recipe for adventure.

This doesn't mean an RPG based on the Beastmaster. However, it does mean an RPG that is based on the same basic idea. The idea is only partly baked, and right now I'm doing some research to make sure everything works. Note though, the t.v. show is badly acted.

Tuesday, November 13, 2012

Secrets of Magic: Firebolt has been released today on 4Shared and Scribed.com.

Alright, now to do something radical. Everyone, I can't afford to "buy" a business license from my local Municipalitical government, although circumstances has forced me to use something that is still revered by our Government in the Constitution to my advantage.

That's right, its copyright. However, in order to make it rather than play the game of Publisher's Roulette, I'm offering to play Public Roulette instead. Here's how it works:

The Internet is the most efficient copying machine that man has ever created in Modern History. It has the ability to copy Energy perfectly from one computer to another on an infinite scale in the form of words, pictures, sounds, and video arranged for the purpose of education, aesthetics, or entertainment. For almost twenty years, Media Corporations could have embraced the Internet in the role it was made to be. However, individuals are much more forward seeing.

Before the Internet, we had Publishers and Printers who had these expensive, gigantic printing presses that could put Energy to paper, vinyl, tape, or to cinematic film in rivalrous goods known as books, cassette tapes, records, and film. Writers almost had to universally play Publisher Roulette in order to get their work published. In this Roulette, they'd almost always lose and only 5% of writers become a famous, well known author who could live just off of their work.

Now thanks to the internet, you can buy from the Writer directly. And thanks to Ryan Dancey, you can buy products made for Pathfinder and the d20 system written by authors who work for themselves and not exclusively for Wizards of the Coast. The OGL is the underlying cause of Pathfinder's success.

Secrets of Magic: Firebolt is the first step for me in a radical change. It's a document that takes the spell firebolt and reveals it's secrets to you in a not so generic world setting that is as generic as you can get. It's part of a series called Secrets of Magic, which you, the public, have the full rights to distribute.

After all, in order for the work to be enjoyed, it lives inside your minds; and it can only live inside your minds if you can read it. Therefore, it is released with both the Open Game License and the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported license. You will find that you can build on the work, alter the work, create derivatives, and even sell a copy yourself. You can even put it up on the *cough* Pirate Bay. *cough!*

You just download it, and if you like it, you can send me a donation on what you think the work is worth to you. This is Nina Paley's experiment applied to a Pathfinder derivative document.

The work is available for Free Download from 4shared and Scribd.com, and can be purchased from Scribd.com. I will accept donations in the form of a USD check, money order, gold, silver, precious stones, crystals, and food (elections have consequences, people! Food will be the new currency, get used to it!) in that order. Once I have enough money to open a bank account, I can open a paypal account.

HOW DO WE PAY YOU?
Through donations. I'll accept Checks and Money Orders in USD currency, gold and silver, precious stones, and crystals, and then food -- in that order. Donations can be made to my private address which I can share through private, secure email.

WE CAN DO ANYTHING WE WANT WITH THIS?
Yeah. You can. You can create Derivative Works, Alter the Work to your specifications, and even sell a copy of it for yourself. You are the distributor!

THIS IS A LOT LIKE WHAT NINA PALEY DID . . .
Exactly. This is following her cobbler model. You will able to take the work and distribute it as an audience to any outlet you please. :)

Sunday, October 14, 2012

While doing research for my adventure I'm writing, I wanted to be clear that the adventure was happening in an Alternate Earth -- or an Alternate Universe (in Fantasy RPG speak, we'd call this an alternate prime material plane). So, I went to refresh my mind on Quantum Mechanics to make sure that I was being accurate. These thoughts are only a hypothesis or just thinking out loud.

It's so fun being vindicated. Watching "Imagining the Tenth Dimension" vlogs, the physicist says that we move through the 5th or 6th Dimension (there are officially 10 dimensions recognized by Science). Some people would say we move only through the 4th dimension and that our course in time is fixed and there is no deviation. They say that we are finite, and some people who read my blog would embrace this and say that their course is fixed in their journey through the Universe and there is no deviation from their course and people have to accept their course in Life.

However, we have the ability to send our minds to the Past and to the Future, imagining the past as remembering what we have done and imagining the future on our course. If we can send our minds forwards and backwards in time, then we have the ability to choose our course. If we have the ability to choose our course, then we can certainly change our natures. And if we can change, then in reality we are infinite, and we experience absolutely all possibilities at once. Yep, that means that you are simultaneously experiencing being different and are capable of changing to be different.

We are like the photon, which moves at the speed of light, and therefore has no speed relative to its point of observation. Since a photon has no speed, according to it's point of view, it's everywhere at once and the speed of light through a vacuum (c) has no relevance. Like the photon at any given point in time, we are anything at once, choosing what to experience through our bodies' five senses at any given point. This is called collapsing the quantum wave function of possibilities, or using terms from the Expanded Psionics Handbook, manifesting Reality Revision. its unfortunate that most people do it unconsciously rather than consciously, as we should do.

Thus we move in six dimensions when we make a choice and we move in five dimensions when our choice is made. However, what if our minds are capable in moving through the 7th Dimension? When we imagine that the seventh dimension is the ability to "plane walk" or "plane hop" as in Planescape, then perhaps through our imaginations we can travel through the 7th Dimension.

Since our subconscious can't tell the difference between what we imagine and what we see through our five senses, then in a real way we can "plane walk" and travel through the 7th Dimension. As role-players, we have the ability to send our minds to other places and interact with them. We interact through the story the GM sets up for us and we certainly imagine as if we are there playing through an [url=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alter_ego]alter ego[/url] (wikipedia link). And like I said before, our subconscious can't tell the difference between reality and fantasy when we imagine something so it's as if we are actually there experiencing what the GM has set up for us. We can choose to be anybody or anything while playing in a roleplaying game, so in a real way we are moving through the 7th Dimension.

I think that's neat! Watching the vlogs vindicates or corroborates my spiritual beliefs about myself and my place in the Universe. Of course, someone may debate this, but I guess that is to be expected.

Saturday, October 13, 2012

I don't know what to title this, yet. However, I was brushing up on a few things before I started.

-----------------------

Introduction

This adventure
is a fantasy adventure that takes place in a possible alternate Earth where
magic exists, and creatures of myth and legend also exists.In this alternate version, the
parallels to our history is striking except that the colonization of America
takes place during the reign of King Henry the III of England.

The adventure
actually takes place some two hundred years after the start of the hundred
years war, and America is starting to come out of the Late Middle Ages and come
into the

Renaissance.It is the reign of King Richard the III,
and Americans of English descent has expanded into Utah and parts of
California. The English is only
one of many powers in the world, most of which includes elvish and dwarvish
kingdoms along with orc holds.There are also gnomish villages and Halfling settlements.This adventure is part campaign, part
player’s guide, and all adventure in the land of a magical, fantastic Fantasy
America.

Synopsis

This adventure
is for first level characters and takes place on Christmas Day.Christmas festival is happening, and
people are celebrating the day that the Savior supposedly was born.However, the dragon Sargon interrupts
the festival.Sargon, a mighty
fire dragon, is angry with the villagers for not honoring his tribute.In the confusion, the villagers
run in fear in the mighty dragon’s rage, which blows smoke, fire, and
embers.In the confusion,
the player characters are led into the keep, where they deal with the forces
trying to take advantage of their confusion.

The invaders
taking advantage of the confusion are the kobolds and the goblins that found
their ways into the keep from the deep midden and undercrofts.The goblins, of the Salty Husk Tribe,
want to take advantage of the village’s weakness during the dragon attack to
get their favorite food – humans.

The player
characters must get through the goblins and kobolds and hack them down in the
confusion to escape the village’s attack.During the battle to escape the village, the player characters face
dangers such spiders, evil spellcasters, and the undead.By the time they get out, Sargon leaves
to head to his lair.

The player
characters must head to the next village to recooperate and to decide their new
options.With their former masters
slain by the dragon, the player characters must decide if they should continue
on without their masters, get revenge on the dragon, or find the meaning of
their own destinies.

After that, the
player characters will find an open field in which to adventure, and the world
is theirs.If they wish to persue
revenge on the dragon, they are free to do so and the adventure’s linear path
assumes such.

WHATS IN THIS ADVENTURE?

Part 1 – The
Player’s Guide

The Player’s Guide deals with the players directly and
what it takes to create a character that fits for this adventure.The adventure deals with new concepts
such as Cultures, to help a player define his character much more fully within
the framework of the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game or d20 system.While a competing roleplaying
product will award a beginning player skill ranks in various skills, the
concept is still the same – you are as much as a product of your culture as you
were born.These new rules were
meant to reflect that.

Aside from
that, there are rules in handling real world religions within the framework of
the adventure.Each religion –
Christianity, Buddhism, Taoism, and different flavors of Heathenism – for
example – are explained within the context of the adventure.

Along with that
and Player character class choices and magical languages that are available for
roleplay are explained in the document.If it’s all too confusing, pre-generated characters are provided as an
illustration of what can be done within the new rules.

Part 2 – The
Adventure

This provides
the bulk of the adventure.From
the invasion of the village to the escape of the PCs on their way to find new
adventure.They are either to get
revenge against Sargon, or to find their own destinies. This section describes the adventure in
detail.

Part 3 –
Appendix

The appendices provides rules for a different interpretation of the
Barbarian class along with a new interpretation of the Monk class as a Warrior
Monk and some variations to allow for monks to explore the mystical side of
Eastern Religion.

Sunday, October 7, 2012

Some pastors are going to be mad at me. The real Jesus during his 70 week ministry said that "Wide is the gate that lead to destruction." Is religion the wide gate? All people have a religion, even so called irreligious Atheists have religious traditions they adhere too.

Michael Rood says so. This is his video on Truth vs. Tradition.

Religion is a set of beliefs we all adhere too. Joseph Smith said that true Christian religion is taking care of the widows and orphans. However, there are a lot of traditions that crept into Western Christianity that came from pagan religions.

A lot of what we hold dear: Jesus being born on December 25, that he had a 3 and a half year ministry, and that he died when he was 33 are all pagan traditions adopted from Babylonian Sun Worship. Also, we have been tricked into thinking that our leaders are infallible and that they will lead us into heaven with Christ if we do and believe what they say.

Our traditions on what Jesus looks like can be wrong as well. A young boy who saw him when he was very young reported that he wore a crown on his head, had a sash of purple, and truly loved him. Long hair? I don't think that was in the description. Our pagan traditions in the Church is responsible for breeding Atheism. For instance, Hallowe'en is more popular than Christmas, even though our nation spends 3 months celebrating Christmas.

Jesus said Strait is the gate is the way to Eternal Life. This means that Spirituality -- a personal relationship with the Christ -- is our way of gaining Eternal Life. Although prophets like Leland Freeborn have been raised up to warn the people what happens if they don't forsake the pagan traditions in the Christian Church; it's spirituality that will save people. Having a personal relationship with the Savior and the Great Eternal Father is much more saving than believing in religion.

My adventure will be sans-Pathfinder Compatible logo. According to the usage restrictions -- an adventure with a nudist character in it would fall under "you may not use this License for products that the general public would classify as "adult content," offensive, or inappropriate for minors."Thanks to Age of Aenya (Nick Allmonos) I feel like I should write pathfinder adventures with naturist heroes. A naturist hero is a hero that adventures naked, sans clothing. I've been wanting to do this for a while, but I always felt that the Pathfinder Compatibility license and the d20 License were limiting. Although Paizo is a private company and they have the right to censor with their Pathfinder Compatibility license, I still feel it is wrong to censor something so blatantly. It's American culture for you -- the people aren't ready for naturism or nudism -- or those in power here in this country rely on keeping the people's clothes on to stay in power. Actually I feel a mixture of jealousy and empowerment. I really feel that this issue has to be addressed, and that primitive cultures in the world accepted full nudity now or at one time. So, why do the Israelites (White Caucasians and Europeans) demanded clothing? I think its all because of a largely, and gross, error in interpreting what happened in the Garden of Eden. It's either intentional or it's accidental. But in any case, Christianity does make a point to clothe the naked as an example of doing good.In this case, the words clothe the naked, is part of the basic necessities of human life. That's one point. but another point is that there are 250 logical reasons not wear clothes. If wearing clothes is a result of our fallen nature, then by extension Jesus Christ's atonement in the Garden and his crucifixion made it possible that man isn't fallen any more so by logic clothes aren't really needed in a purely Christian society.So, a pathfinder adventure where one of the heroes is without clothing? not impossible. :) But it has to be published without the Pathfinder Compatibility License. :)

Wednesday, September 5, 2012

I'm really poor. I live on 5 dollars a day. My family has been in absolute financial distress since 2004, and there's little to do but perfect my Poser Art while the Computer Graphics Society condemns us all poser and DAZ Studio users.

No more.

Since I'm so poor, I figure I have really nothing to lose on a risky venture. So, writing an adventure using kobolds as the antagonists, I noticed that I ran into a snag while planning all the Poser 3D Art. Sixus Studios' Raptorian is missing and Rawn's lizard men for M4/V4 isn't really something you can rely on for kobolds. They are too humanoid.

Faced with a choice of being cheap or going all out, I could either get someone to draw B&W art for me. Or I can risk it all in a Kickstart and have the Kobold created as a 3D poser figure. I talked to Chikako of Mirye Software and Meshbox on the possibility of having a kobold created with clothes to my specifications.

The price tag for creating the Kobold in 3D Studio MAX and having it painted in Mudbox, along with a selection of clothes and weapons is $4,200 dollars (that includes transfer of Copyright). I'm having the Copyright transferred to me for several reasons -- this figure cannot achieve it's full potential if either Meshbox or I kept it shut in a Copyright chest. I'll be selling it through Meshbox, Mirye Software, and Renderosity with a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License (the least restrictive of the Creative Commons licenses).

Yes, I can see your mouths drop. "$4,200 dollars? Where are you going to get that kind of money?!" you say. Others are saying, "Your going to put a Creative License on your Kobold figure, you're crazy!"

Since the Kobold is going to be the single most expensive item in making this adventure, I'm making it my mascot. So, I checked to see if a d20/Pathfinder/D&D 5e publisher existed under Kobold Publishing. Well, the name isn't registered. There is a Kobold Quarterly, but no Kobold Publishing.

I'm doing this for a couple of reasons.

Today, I'm having a conversation with Rite Publishing on doing pro bono work as an intern for doing their layouts. It would be great if my family is more prosperous to just intern, but since we are in financial distress I need to do something to ease the distress. I'm going to take the intern job while raising money for the adventure.

So I am announcing my intentions of forming Kobold Publishing, Ltd. Kobold Publishing, Ltd. works on producing Adventures for the Pathfinder roleplaying game. Each adventure will have the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License as well as being produced under the OGL. Our mascot is the kobold that I'm spending so much money on making a reality.

Each adventure will be produced in a heroic fantasy vein. Some will feature psionics, some not. But it will be all adventure. Plus, with the Creative Commons license, Wizards of the Coast can publish one of my adventures for D&D Next, Paizo can make a competing copy, and many other possibilities. The possibilities are endless when you grant FREEDOM OF THE PRESS.

What I'm Reading

Daily chess puzzle

About Me

I am planning on going back to school and building wealth for the benefit of thousands of people. I am interested in all kinds of science, although I'm going back to school as a physics student. Mostly as theoretical physics instead of engineering.
I play roleplaying Games like Rolemaster, Dungeons and Dragons, and Pendragon. I am a Latter-day Saint.